Congress dirty tricks dept behind 'snoopgate' probe: Shah

Yesterday, the government had said a judicial commission to probe 'snoopgate' allegedly involving Modi will be in place before the Lok Sabha poll process comes to an end on May 16.

The government had decided four months ago to set up the inquiry commission but the process got delayed reportedly because of its inability to find a judge, who was ready to take the task.

The government had announced that the commission, to be headed by a retired Supreme Court judge or a retired Chief Justice of a high court, will also look into the alleged snooping on Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh by the previous BJP government when he was in the opposition as well as the leaking of the call data records (CDR) of Jaitley in Delhi.

The Union Cabinet on December 26, 2013 took the decision under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, under which the Modi government had already set up a similar panel.

There were reports that as no retired judge was willing to head the probe commission, the UPA government was mulling the option of changing the terms of reference for the commission by incorporating a provision that will allow the government to appoint a sitting judge of a high court.

Shah alleged that the UPA government had conveniently "forgotten" the reports of scams like the CWG and Adarsh and was now resorting to such "unconstitutional move".